Inheritors of the Forerunners
by Xenongaf
Summary: The planet Requiem was a prison of sorts, a beautiful one nevertheless. Sierra-117 wasn't meant to crash, but fate had other plans. A successor to protect the mantle was required and since there wasn't any other candidates, he was chosen, just as the Spartan program chose him. The life in the galaxy would depend on him. However, that didn't mean he had to do it alone. (ON HOLD)
1. Awakening

Awakening 06/09/2014

(note: I'm going to use the armour from halo 3, since it makes him look taller and more tougher)(The Halo 2 HD Collection is what he should look like).

All was quiet on the Forward Unto Dawn. Darkness gloomed on the interior of the ship. Wires hung down, still sparking. A constant message that seemed to echo inside the ship and objects floated around without the gravity generator.

It had been 4 years, 7 months and 10 days on the broken ship. Signs of aging had started to show on the exterior of the once functioning vessel.

As Cortana checked the sensors and cameras, it had become a chore to do. Sighing, she moved on to check other bits of data. No sign of change to the ships infrastructure, other than the occasional dis-functioning programs, which she quickly fixed in a millisecond. She quickly flashed red before going back to blue.

Cortana was showing signs of rampancy, being isolated on the ship with nothing new to do had really frustrated the AI to the point where she had almost defrosted the entire Cryo bay just to talk to someone.

Almost, the promise he made to make sure that she didn't pre-release him, nor release him to late. 'Wake me when you need me' , he said before going into the cryo tube. She longed for that rumbling baritone sound that came from his throat. If she could just…

Suddenly, an orange beam of light bore down on the damaged of hull of the ship, scrambling electrical equipment on it's way.

Cortana, stood up slowly from her pedestal, already she could see unknowns on the radar of the ship, approaching slowly. She looked through the systems on the ship, everything she had organised, was scrambled everywhere on the systems. She opened the cryo tube monitor, all the tubes were empty, save for one, which held him. Cortana waited for 2 seconds, pondering before activating the thawing process.

"Wake up Chief", she spoke, the gas and steaming out of the cryo pods. "I need you".

As the pod defrosted, the glass window to the Cryo tube, cleared up revealing the golden visor of Sierra-117, better known as the Master Chief.

Chief slowly and groggily began to wake up. His eyes after being in deep cryo stasis, cracked open to show the interior of his helmet.

His brain started to function again as he processed his surroundings inside the cryo bay. He scanned the area until he found Cortana's Avatar on the holo tank.

"Hold on, I'm engaging the ships gravity generator", she voiced through his speakers. A few moments later, the ships gravity returned as all the objects hit the ground with a thump.

"Chief, there should be a cryo pod emergency handle just above your head", she instructed.

Instinctively, he looked and reached the Cryo tube manual release, pulling down on it and kicking the door open moderately. He walked over to Cortana's holographic avatar.

"Good to see you again Chief", Cortana smiled.

"Ready to get back to work?" Chief asked Cortana, who had her arms crossed over in an exasperated position.

"I thought you'd never ask", she sighed as the Master Chief pulled her out of the terminal. He slotted the chip in the back of his head. The familiar, cool sensation calmed all his nerves.

"How long have I been asleep for?" John asked walking down the cryo bay to loosen his stiff legs and body.

"Four years, seven months and ten days", She replied curtly. His right eye twitched. He was surprised to say the least, no wonder his body felt rigid and stiff. Still working his body, he walked down to the main corridor.

"Any information on the possible hostiles?" He asked. John always made sure he had some idea of what he was up against. Sure, he was a Spartan, but that didn't mean he could let his guard down easily.

"None so far, although it seems to indicate covenant", she queried, "but that's almost impossible since we disbanded the loyalists at the Ark, it's probably a splinter group or a pirate group". The Master Chief then straightened up.

"Where's the best observation of the whole ship", John inquired.

"The bridge is the only intact and most ideal observation platform for you to use", she replied with certainty. "The quickest route is through here". She brought a mini-map on the HUD of the helmet. An elevator existed on the far right side of the mini-map.

John quickly memorised the route before moving towards the corridor that led to the mess hall. As he stepped into the corridor a large energy field appeared, shaking the ship up and scrambling his armours HUD functions.

"Cortana, what was that?" He asked.

"High intensity scanner, doesn't match any known patterns!" She exclaimed, obviously this was something new, a possible threat. Chief walked into the next room where he found the elevator doors jammed. He stuck his fingers between the gap as he pried the doors open.

"Chief, be careful", Cortana said in an unsure tone. As he ripped open the elevator doors, a vacuum was already in place and pulled him in. He smacked against the wall of the shaft.

"Chief!" she shouted. As clung to the shaft, loose objects fell from the ceiling. _I have to time this right,_ he concentrated. Slowly he crawled up the elevator shaft, taking cautious climbs up the wall. After minutes of climbing he finally reached the ledge where unfortunately a Jackal was stationed. The Avian reptile screeched in alarm and fired three needles in his direction. _At least it's not split lips, _he thought to himself as he hauled himself over the ledge. The pink needles made contact with his armour. The annoying alarm in his helmet quickly got his attention. He quickly tackled the Jackal and smashed his fist into its' skull. The Jackal stopped struggling laid still. Chief grabbed the needler, and continued towards the bridge.

As Chief traversed down the Dawn's corridors, he came across a weapons cache with ammo magazines scattered around it and three assault rifles. Taking six magazines and an assault rife, he ditched the needler in favour for the UNSC weapon.

Quickening his pace, he came across a small group of Jackals led by a Brute that was concentrating on picking it's nose. Taking careful aiming, he shot two controlled bursts of fire killing the brute and a Jackal, the rest brought up their shields. Shooting two more controlled bursts stunned two of the Jackals which he finished with mowing them down. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a green glowing projectile racing towards him, Chief rolled out of the way and fired a burst at the last Jackal, killing it. Looking around, he found a communicator dropped by the brute. Picking it up, he let Cortana analyse it for useful information while he continued down the arch of the door.

"Interesting", she quipped, "the communications are all centred around this planet, what they call 'Requiem', a forerunner planet that supposedly houses this Godly figure known as the Didact". Chief mentally stored the information for future reference.

Continuing down the hallway, passing various doors and rooms, he arrived at the bridge. Silently, he crept up to a brute fiddling with the control panels at the main console. Taking out his knife, he stabbed the brute through the vocal cords, preventing it from screaming.

Taking the spikers on the brute, he threw the spikers on three of the of nine Jackals killing six of them. He jumped onto another Jackal and put a bullet through the head. Shooting the other before punching another through the head. Checking the motion tracker on his HUD, a red dot was slowly moving away from him, he threw his knife at the target, resulting in a inhuman scream torso. He shot twice to end the sound.

Checking his motion tracker, he found nothing appearing on the scanners. Walking over to the Jackal with the knife sticking out of it's torso, he pulled it sharply out. Wiping the blood off the knife before sheathing it, he climbed back up the steps to the main control station and inserted Cortana.

Cortana appeared on the Holo-tank as her usual full body avatar. As she sorted files out, she opened the metal shutters of the bridge. _Wait, why weren't there grunts among them?,_ he pondered.

"Good news Chief, it looks like those weren't actual covenant loyalists or Separatists we fought", she said with relief, "It seems more like a splinter group from either faction". Chief looked at the dark grey wall behind the multitude of vessels.

"Cortana", he asked, "What is that?" he pointed at the grey mass. Her avatar frowned for a moment before a look of surprise took it's place. She quickly brought up a hologram of the planet.

"Chief", she started slowly, "I think this is what they call Requiem". Suddenly an orange scanner appeared from the planet. It scanned right up to the bridge where it halted on John for twenty seconds. It then showed briefly the reclaimer symbol before shutting off.

"Well that was unexpected", she spoke out breaking the silence. "Pull me out Chief, there's something happening inside the planet. He complied and pulled her out. Just as he did that, the planet unexpectedly opened up, revealing a bright interior.

"Chief, we need to move now!" Cortana exclaimed, her panicking tone made it clear to Chief that this was dangerous. A waypoint appeared on his HUD showing the way to the escape pods. Quickly sprinting down the hall, he found himself slamming through walls to get to the objective.

About forty metres away from the waypoint, the old ship began to groan, John and Cortana both knew what was going to happen. Slamming into more doors and walls in a frenzy. He finally made it to the escape pod bay. Sprinting to the nearest pod, he slammed the hatched down and launched the life craft.

As the small craft flew, the gravity well in requiem caught it and started to drag the pod back to requiem.

"Since we're going to be entering the gravity well, we should probably hold onto something or even strap yourself down", Cortana instructed. Chief just held on.

They weaved through the debris field, dodging large chunks of the dawn. Smaller wreckage; however, was harder to steer clear of and soon, they found themselves spinning out of control. Chief wrestled for control of the pod. Almost immediately, the life craft increased speed, sending him tumbling backwards.

Taking his last glance, his eyes widened when the ground grew bigger on the viewing glass, he curled into a ball when everything blacked out.


	2. Meet the Natives

"Chief?" Cortana asked worriedly, his body was still, no heartbeats or neural activity registered on the suits computer. Suddenly, he began twitching his fingers. Opening his eyes, he found himself half through the glass window of the pod, glass was shattered all over his body. Craning his neck to the side, he searched for any activity in the wreckage. Finding no movement on the motion tracker, he proceeded to push himself out of the cockpit, landing with a thump on the ground.

"Cortana, what happened?" he enquired. His mind was telling him one thing, weapons. Quickly surveying the wreckage waiting for Cortana's answer, he found a magnum laying on the ground next to a steel brace. Walking over to it, he found it had a full magazine. Attaching it to his hips, Chief kept scavenging for weapons.

"Well Chief," she started, "when we entered the gravity well, the pressure was so great that the ship tore to pieces, the pod was speeding so fast that if you didn't curl into a ball, your body would splatter inside your armour from the impact". Chief stared into the distance, before turning his head.

Walking through the burning wreckage, he found a small passageway out of the crater. Trudging down the shaded tunnel, he found himself in the direct sunlight. Not a dark cloudy sky, nor an overly bright sky, it was a warm and beautiful sun, with a mountainous landscape, large patches of grass grew around the area, whilst small cliffs hung over the valley. Floating spires littered the sky and constantly moved parts.

"Heads up Chief!", she exclaimed, "we've got a huge sentinel coming towards us, about a kilometre away". Chief turned himself to see the sentinel; it was massive, blue light glowed from a pattern on its body, two huge cannons on top of each other was facing him and two 'arms' hung from it's sides. In short, it was Armageddon for him and Cortana. Taking a deep breath, he calmly took a fighting stance with his magnum lifted up.

"Cortana, any information on this sentinel variant", he asked with composure.

"According to my probing of this sentinel, the Forerunners call this variant the 'Destroyer Variant', not much else I can glean from it other than the main cannon which will pulverise you", she explained. Still acting with composure, he stood still.

The sentinel drew closer to him, it's blue optics glowed even in the sunlight. It came to a sudden stop ten metres away from the Chief. An orange scanner (much like the one on the dawn) appeared and scanned him from head to toe. A reclaimer symbol appeared and the scanner clicked off.

"Welcome Reclaimer", it declared in a sonorous voice. "I am Omicron, one of the twenty-four destroyers assigned to Requiem as it's guardians". Chief looked at the newly identified Omicron with suspicion.

"Chief, we should be wary of this sentinel", Cortana drawled quietly, "remember last time". Of course, last time had gotten the forerunner AI 'Guilty Sparks' to kill Johnson and almost purged Cortana.

"What is Requiem?", Chief suddenly questioned the monster of a sentinel. Omicron hummed and whistled before replying, much like 'Guilty Sparks'.

"Requiem is a Forerunner fortress world, home to one point eight billion sentinels and the Prometheans base of operations during the Forerunner-Human war", it replied succinctly. Chief immediately brought up his assault rifle.

"What do you mean 'Forerunner-Human war?", he asked with a miniscule hint of aggression. Omicron kept humming and chirping. A small ding was heard in Chiefs armour. A screen popped up onto his HUD, Cortana's face was creased into a frown.

"Chief your going to want to see this video, it's about the Forerunner-Human war", she chimed in. About two seconds later, a video opened on the HUD in his helmet. The video started with advanced humans on warships, two stood out from the rest.

"We can't keep doing this Lord of Admirals", the first figure started. His face was mixed with worry and desperation. Lord of Admirals turned to him looking him in the eye.

"Yes we can Konnor", he replied curtly, "we can and will risk fighting the Forerunners, the flood will not stop unless we do something about it". The bridge crew turned and looked at the most respected leader, all eyes watched the argument pace back and forth.

"If we keep burning their worlds, they will come and destroy Humanity!", Konnor exclaimed, "and the Didact will kill us with his Prometheans". Lord of Admirals looked at him with a contemptuous look, then chuckled.

"You have a lot to learn when it comes to prioritising Konnor", he humorously declared, "we should not be thinking patriotically, instead we should be doing what the Forerunners are failing to do, upholding the Mantle of Responsibility". As those words came out, the room became dead silent, then one by one they began clapping, soon enough the whole ship was filled with cheers and clapping.

The scene ended and another video showed, this time featuring human and forerunner forces combating each other. Hardlight and plasma projectiles streaked through the air before hitting something. Massive forerunners over 3 metres in size, attacked humans of similar size, whilst getting cut down by the sheer assault of the glowing bullets. Fighters lit up the night sky and the stars seemed to dim from view. Chief couldn't help but be intrigued by the weapons and armour created by the humans, they just looked so different than what humans during his time used.

The scene changed yet again to show a space orientated battle, ranging from the small five metre agile fighters, to the humongous one hundred kilometre long capital ships. Explosions ripped apart each sides vessels, with no apparent strategy or advancement. It was a stalemate between those two sides.

It then changed to a different location, one he was very familiar with, it was Reach, but something was off about it. He analysed the screen carefully before morphing his face into horror and disgust. The Flood had invaded, and converted all life on the planet into biomass. It was a sickly sight and Chief closed his eyes. Seeing his discomfort, Cortana quickly selected a new scene.

Atop a platform was the Lord of Admirals chained in what looked like energy binders. Sixteen tall Forerunners with orange glowing armour surrounded him in a perfect hexagon in what looked like a military standing position. A command was called, and suddenly rifles constructed themselves on the Forerunners, they turned and faced the human on the platform.

The Lord of Admirals' face showed no hint of fear and looked proudly into empty space in front of him, the screen focused on another position before the sound of the unknown weapons fired. Chief bowed his head in honour for the human. The video feed then interrupts, showing a blood red message that read 'File Corruption'.

"Omicron, are you sure that happened?", Chief asked with suspicion. The sentinel seemed to cock it's body in annoyance from that question.

"That is one hundred per-cent pure footage of some events during the Human-Forerunner war", Omicron answered, "Those were also two key battles such as the assault on Erde-Tyrene and the defence of Charum Hakkor. Both were human controlled planet before the Forerunners stripped them of their technology and planets". Chief hung his head in knowing a greater human race existed.

As if on queue, the hum of a covenant dropship was heard nearby. He lifted his head to see a distinctive purple dropship coming at him at a rapid pace. Checking his ammo for his pistol, he silently made count and found he had just enough to take down three elites.

As the dropship started to deploy its troops, Chief came into action. Sprinting towards the troops, the first three Jackals that jumped out only had a few seconds to screech before their heads exploded. Chief jumped behind a thick rock, before an explosive plasma round struck the ground nearby.

"Chief you should probably stand back a bit", Cortana informed in an urgent manner. Chief retreated several steps back before turning to look at what was going to happen.

"Holy one, we are honoured in your presence", the leading Brute in maroon coloured armour spoke humbly and kneeled to the sentinel, the others followed his example and kneeled. The sentinel's usually blue bright eyes turned into a harsh orange colour, as well as it's body. It then spoke in a deep rumbling voice.

"You dare hurt the reclaimer, his race are the only kind worthy enough to wield the Forerunner's gifts, you disgrace the mantle and thus are not fit to live anymore". The Destroyer then turned to face the dropship and fired a hardlight laser into the ship. Immediately the transport literally disintegrated on the spot. Omicron then turned to the frightened group of aliens and blasted them with a short burst of light, disintegrating them as well.

Chief stepped back into the clearing, seeing the reclaimer, Omicron immediately went back into his calm blue colour. It turned it's body and motioned with it's arms for Chief to come to it. He followed the request without hesitation. Pieces of the sentinel detached and created a floating staircase, Chief tentatively took a step on the first ledge. As he felt it was stable, he took more steps slowly but casually up the staircase. After reaching the top, he found a seat that was a metre behind the sentinels head.

"Reclaimer, may I ask that you take that seat since we are going to be travelling at four kilometres per second", Omicron politely asked the Chief. Doing as he was told, Chief sat the chair. Instantly the sentinel took off leaving a rush of air behind.

As Omicron sped through the air, Chief was pushed back by the sheer g-force, Cortana was humming in his helmet marvelling about the hover technology used to travel at this speed.

After one minute of travelling, Omicron began to slow down, finally stopping at a building embedded in a cliff. The stairs reappeared and Chief stepped down to the ground.

"Reclaimer, I have to go due to maintenance issues at sector 46alpha, be careful and take precautions, for this is his prison", Omicron said before taking off quickly and leaving Chief with Cortana. Wondering what it meant by 'his prison', they continued to the interior of the structure.

Entering the structure, they arrived at a large room, filled with raised and lowered platforms, ramps and other objects. Sentinels seemingly patrolled the air and rays of sunlight provided the luminescence of the area.

"Chief there's a console on the far side of the room, plug me into it", Cortana urged. Quickly sprinting to the console, Chief then plugged the AI into the port. Her usual blue body hologram sprang up on the holo-projector and started tapping away at invisible keys.

"Take a look at this", she asked, a symbol came up next to her on the projector. It was a circular red symbol that had twelve sides in the centre shape, a horizontal rectangle hovered above the centre shape.

"This is the symbol of the Ur-Didact", Cortana said, "apparently, this fortress world is literally his house, unfortunately he was imprisoned in what is called a cryptum, designed to hold a person in stasis for a very long time, similar to cryo". Chief could tell she was getting overloaded with information.

"Cortana, can you send me coordinates to this cryptum", he asked, she nodded. A few seconds later, the wall behind him opened into a passageway. The walls were angled inward and a faint blue glow was present at the end. Walking through the passageway revealed terminals attached to walls and floating parts of the wall. He finally got to the end to find a doors slowly opening into a chamber.

Stepping inside the room, Chief stared in confusion. On either side of the thin walkway were pillars sticking out of the blackness. He walked precariously on the walkway to the other side. Looking out for dangers, he inserted Cortana into the terminal. As she started to sort out files, creatures suddenly started forming out of thin air. Chief frantically started pointing his weapon at them.

"Chief, pull me out", Cortana urged and Chief complied without hesitation. A blue portal formed out of two pillars rose from the ground. He bolted for it; unfortunately one of the creatures grabbed him before he could escape and flung him to the wall.

The creature picked him up and teleported to an unknown location.


	3. Bad wake up call

Chief opened his eyes groggily. A piecing light seemed to enter his helmet, suddenly pain erupted around his temples causing him to tightly squeeze his eyes. After silently writhing in pain for thirty seconds, Chief focused himself and willed the pain to stop. Quickly checking his radar, he did not find any hostiles on the blue circle.

Slowly testing his body functions, he willed his muscles in his hands to clench. It obeyed him and did as he commanded. Trying out his other muscles, he was surprised to find that every part of his body moved and worked well.

Taking a deep breath, Chief attempted to lift himself off the ground steadily. He was successful. Taking a quick glance, Chief noticed he was inside a massive sphere standing on a platform. In front of him was a glowing orange ball floating in what looked like the centre of the place.

Reaching up to his com unit on his helmet, he messaged Cortana. "Cortana are you there?", he asked. No response came back. Almost immediately one of those creatures appeared from a portal similar to slipspace. Orange lighting was marked around it's body like a tattoo. The upper body was large and seemed to have some sort of code scrolling through it's body, the limbs were almost comical as they were not proportionate to the body. It's head ;however, was positioned where the chest would be, lines crisscrossed diagonally on it's face.

The creature turned around and started walking in the direction of the orange sphere. Hoping this would lead to Cortana, Chief followed discreetly, making almost no noise as he tailed the thing. Within a few minutes, both had travelled to a T-Section, with two spires on either side towering ominously. The orange ball was much bigger up closer and was emitting a strange frequency. The HUD began to blur and become fuzzy.

Reaching up behind his helmet, he flicked a small switch and the armour systems stopped functioning. He knew that sacrifice his armour's shields and HUD was a bad idea, but if he didn't, the Mark VI would do something he would regret later. His foot steps became heavier as he was forced to rely on his own strength to move in the one tonne MJOLNIR powered armour.

A small raised platform laid several hundred metres away from him, dozens of holograms decorated the platform. Keeping his guard up, Chief kept walking slowly to the objective. Slowly putting a hand to his knife, he took quick glances from left to right. Two swirling portals opened either side of him dropping two of the creatures.

The things followed him at the same pace, observing him from a far distance. Somehow, Chief knew something was behind those faces of theirs.

Arriving at the platform, it suddenly became more active and the projected orange images spun around him like a helicopter. Scanners bathed his suit in an orange hue. Within seconds they disappeared and the console levitated while disassembling at the same time. Pieces broke off and partnered with other pieces to create a different object.

The object was a two handed grip, connected to a terminal. Without even thinking of the possible implications, he enveloped both of the grips. The moment he touched the bulbous objects, a shockwave emanated from the orange ball. A groaning of machinery moving emerged from within the ball.

Chief watched stiffly as a single platform lowered down with a humanoid figure kneeling down on one leg on top of it. Instantly the figure stuck out his left arm and several pieces of armour flew towards the stretched limb, covering it thoroughly. The same movement was made with the right arm four seconds later.

Being mesmerized by the complexity of the armour and level of technology, Chief could only watch in awe of the process happening before him. The figure stood up straight and more fragments flew, interlocking with each other and activating functions. Within seconds the figure was fully armoured. It turned it's head to face the Chief.

Orange hate filled eyes looked at the Chief, fangs turned upwards in displeasure and the skin around the face seemed to tighten in enmity. The figure then extended it's six figured hand towards the Chief, an invisible force suddenly gripped his two metre frame and lifted him in the air, excruciating pain coursed through his entire body as he was forcefully lifted towards the figure.

"I have to admit human", the Alien started with mock admiration, "you are very brave in releasing me from my solitary exile in Requiem's Cryptum".

Chief said nothing as he continued to struggle against the grip of the humanoid.

"Well then, since you do not want to acknowledge me human", the Alien continued venomously, "you have resigned yourself to your fate". Without warning, the Humanoid slammed Chief into the ground of the nearest platform, making a very large dent and knocking him unconscious. The figure pointed his finger at the nearby creature.

"You, bring him to memory extraction, I want to see everything that has happened in my absence", he commanded. The creature complied and lifted Chief up in it's arms before teleporting away.

"After I am done with this human, the rest of the galaxy will learn the might of the Ur-Didact", he mused to himself before teleporting away.

* * *

**Hey my Fellow readers**

**I am very sorry you had to endure waiting for me to post the new chapter but I had a writers block for a long time.**

**I really do enjoy having reviews to help me write as it encourages me to press on.**

**Hope you enjoy future chapters.**

**Xenongaf :)**


	4. Memories Part 1

As the Ur-Didact walked to the memory extraction chamber, he glanced at the nearby Promethean AI walking with him. The AI didn't seem to notice him staring at it and trudged on to the chambers. He turned his head back forward to see the entrance of the chamber. Waving his hand, the door opened with a soft whoosh. Stepping into the room, he gazed at everything inside it.

Two metal pillars extended from the floor crackling with electrical energy. Objects floating in mid air rotated ever so slightly on the spot and occasionally disassembled only to reassemble into a different object. An orange glow marked the floor like cracks in a volcano.

The lone armoured human figure hung limply on the metal pillars, held up only by hardlight restraints that cuffed his wrists tightly. The human slowly strained his head to see who made the doors. The helmeted head seemed to stiffen when he saw the Didact. The Didact nodded at the Promethean next to him before walking to the human at a leisurely pace.

"So _human_, why did you wake me from my slumber", he asked the armoured human. The human didn't respond. Shaking his head, the Didact summoned a small device to him. Reaching out, he grasped the helmet with ease and ripped it off viciously, tossing it away carelessly. The Didact took a step back in order to take in the humans facial features.

The human had light brown fur attached to his head (not unlike young forerunner manipulars), pale skin and a hardened expression. However, what caught him off guard (though he didn't show it) was the experienced cold eyes that stared back at him. It was like as if all the warmth of this human was extinguished, only to be replaced by a cold demeanour. The Ur-Didact was now more intrigued by this human and his memories.

Without warning, the Didact placed the device onto the humans forehead. Almost instantly, he cringed in pain for a moment, then dropped his head. The Didact pulled the device from his head and signalled it to fly into a console mounted on the wall. Stepping away from the now unconscious human, he strode towards a coffin like contraption. The machine hummed to life when the Didact was two steps away from it and opened it's doors. Laying his back into it, he closed his eyes and waited for the feeling of being transformed.

It was a weird feeling, some say it felt like you were being stretched and compressed into a mould, others would say it was almost like a nice tingling feeling swirling inside. For the Didact, however, he felt nothing change. Only a slight twitch in his head.

_Opening his eyes, he found himself staring at a white ceiling with bright lights flooding into his eyes. A high pitched whine escaped from his mouth. As if on queue, a human woman's face appeared in his vision. She was cooing and coddling him, well the baby. Another face appeared beside the mother, this time a male face. His mouth was twisted upwards in awe and happiness for the baby._

_"What shall we name him Allison?", the man asked his wife. The Didact became intrigued by this, almost no forerunner smiled anymore due to it's useless nature to try to cheer someone up. But when he smiled, he felt good and happy inside._

_"I think we can call him John", Allison said, while look down at the baby. So the human's name was John, the Didact thought to himself. _

_The scene swirled away and another memory was be loaded onto the helmet._

_He was at a mass of water standing in the sand, what was it that those humans called it? Ah, a lake, he was standing at a lake. A scream was present in the air and in the middle of the lake someone was thrashing in the water violently. His body acted of it's own accord and rushed to the screaming person._

_He jumped into the water, instantly gaining a reaction from the Didact, who hadn't expected the water to be so cold. He shivered as he felt himself swimming towards the noise._

_After swimming for at least 30 seconds, the person stopped thrashing and began to slowly sink below the surface of the water. John swam, no the Didact swam quicker. When he reached the person, he noticed it was a very young human female. Wrapping his arms around the little girl, he half swam half dragged the girl to shore. _

_When his feet touched the sand, he used his legs to carry the girl up the sand and laid her down on a flat piece of grass. Looking up from the girl, he frantically looked left to right, waiting for someone to come and help them, but no one came. Breathing slowly, he looked at the girl and suddenly an idea popped into his head on how to save this girl.  
The Didact then snarled in disgust of the idea, but with no other choice, he leaned in and breathed into the girls mouth, lips fully touching. _

_The girls eyes widened slowly, then quickly when she noticed something was pressed over her lips, which was his lips. The girl then coughed violently into his mouth, resulting in him scrambling off her and spiting out her saliva._

_"Eww…yuck", He said whilst simultaneously wiping his mouth. _

_"You call that yuck? You were kissing me", she yelled. _

_"I was only trying to save you, otherwise you probably would've died on the beach"._

_The girl then hung her head, "Thanks for rescuing me", she mumbled. He looked at her, then a small smile crept onto his face. _

_"Your welcome", he said shyly back, twiddling his thumbs in the process. _

_"My names Parisa," she said, brushing a loose bit of wet hair out of her face._

_"My name is…"', he was interrupted by some shouting._

_"Parisa! Where you", a voice yelled out. Parisa's face fell and she got up slowly from the sand and started for the voice. As she was disappearing from his line sight, he yelled at her._

_"My name is John!"_

_There was no indication that she heard him, only a slight nod to the head, he smiled._

_The scene changed and he was at a building with lots of kids around playing and laughing. The Didact took a brief moment to pause and reflect on the situation. Some how he felt 'happiness' since his children died. He wondered how the human ended up as a soldier._

_He was jerked out of his thoughts when he saw the girl Parisa being punched in the stomach by a couple of older kids. Instantly he ran at them._

_"Leave her alone!", he roared at them. They turned and laughed at him with not mirth, but cruelness. One of them came up to him and threw a punch at his face. Parisa covered her mouth with her hands, afraid that John was going to be hurt badly._

_He ducked straight under it and put all he strength in punch the unprotected groin. The results were instantaneous, the bully laid on the ground blubbering and clutching his hurt appendage. He just stepped over the body nonchalantly and cracked his knuckles, a trick he learned in kindergarten when kids disrespected the teachers, wait! The Didact never remembered that. Regardless, the bullies now white with fear stumbled away and left behind their friend._

_John walked over to Parisa's bruised body and picked her up bridal style. She blushed and mumbled something incoherent before turning to face him. _

_"John, thank you for standing up for me", she whispered. John sheepishly grinned at her._

_"When we grow up, I swear to marry and protect you with all my heart", he mumbled, but Parisa heard it and blushed very red. _

_Leaning into his ear, she whispered something, "Don't make a promise, if you can't keep it John". He slowly nodded and walked to a building with a '+' sign on it_

_The scenery changed. It was the school yard, but in front of him was a young woman dressed in a Denim jeans with a white jacket covering her body._

_"Who are you", he questioned with uncertainty at the woman in front of him._

_"My name is Catherine Halsey, John", She replied._

_He frowned at the obvious exchange of names since it was unusual for any adult to give their first name. Halsey reached into her purse and pulled out a circular metal that had engraving on it._

_"Now John, I want you to tell me which side the coin will land on", she asked. _

_"Heads", he said. She tossed the coin in the air and waited till it landed back on the ground, with the heads facing upwards. John punched the air in victory. Halsey gave a sad smile and motioned for something with his hands. He didn't notice the needle until it was too late._

* * *

_He slowly lifted his eyelids up and squinted at the harsh light in the room. Other groans filled the air and he realized what had happened. He had been kidnapped from his school. Scanning the room, he found it was dull coloured with a small stage at the front. Taking quick glances, he also found there was other children waking up or already trying to stand up._

_Suddenly a woman strutted onto the stage. It was the same woman that kidnapped him. Before he could do anything she opened her mouth to speak._

_"Greetings, I am Dr Catherine Halsey", she introduced herself, "to my right is Master chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez", she pointed in that direction to a buff man with a stubbled chin._

_"You are now Spartans, you have been called to serve, you will be trained and pushed to your very limit and become the best we can make of you. You will be the protectors of Earth and all her colonies". She concluded her speech and motion the children and John to follow Mendez._

_When they reached the rooms Mendez turned to face them._

_"Listen up!", he yelled, startling some of the kids, "you will be put into cabins according to your serial number! Find your cabins and get some shut eye, cause tomorrow is going to be a fun day!"_

_Almost immediately the Spartan trainees rushed to find their cabins only to bump into other kids. John ran to the room three metres away from the cabin Mendez had stood at and entered. Inside there was three other boys. _

_On the boys metal beds, an engraving of their serial number was imprinted onto the frame. John soon learnt his roommates numbers, one of them notably named Fredric-104. As he approached his bed, his legs gave up on him, forcing him to crawl under the covers of scratchy bed sheets. Staring at the ceiling, he sighed as tiredness took over his body, his eyelids closing and revealing the realm of blackness. _

_It felt only a few seconds before he was electrocuted back into awareness, he glanced at the other bunk beds in which were empty. Mendez was in front of him holding a stick, without warning he smacked the stick viciously onto John's body and instantly John screamed in pain._

_"Get up boy, you got twenty laps around the compound and the others have already done 18, so you better get started._

* * *

_John had just finished his 20 laps when Mendez grabbed the attention of him and the other trainee's. He was puffing heavily._

_"Listen up, you are going to be taking a challenge on the playground where the big kids enjoy themselves!", Mendez yelled. A few trainee's eyes lit up in hope for a playground to enjoy themselves on. But John knew better than to get fooled by the ploy._

* * *

_Few minutes later…_

_The Trainees looked in awe and shock at the course they were to complete. Metal bars, wooden and metal planks, mud other things were arrayed in front of them. Some them even fainted, but were quickly pounced on by Mendez with his electrical bat._

_"Now that we have arrived at the course, I'm splitting you up into teams of three, Trainees 003, 058 and 104 are a team". The picked trainees quickly got together and prepared to do the course. _

_"Trainees 089, 117 and 034 are another team". John looked for the trainees and found a girl with the numbers 089 printed on her vest. Her hair was strangely dark blue and her eyes had a light hazel look to it. 034 was standing nearby, his height was massive, a giant compared to him. The giant boys sandy blond hair was short and wavy and his eyes held a green tint to it. _

_"The name's Sam", he spoke with his hand held out. John took it and shook it lightly. _

_"I'm Kelly", 089 voiced and crossed her arms around her chest. John looked at both of them and sighed._

_"My name is John", he said and turned to the beginning line. Already a large crowd of trainees had gathered there. It was then John had an idea._

_"Hey guys, I've got an idea", he said. Both of the two trainees leaned in._

_"See those guys at the starting line", he pointed at the subjects of the conversation, "they are big but keep forgetting important details, the course is so expanse that some of the main elements are easily forgettable such as the pot holes, if we trip them over, they'll fall into at least one of the holes", he explained. Kelly and Sam looked at each other and turned their heads back to John with challenging smirks. A few minutes later, Mendez yelled at them to go and as if to emphasis the point, he fired four training rounds at the slow ones making them start to bawl in pain._

_John turned his head to look at Sam and Kelly who were spreading out as part of the plan. The first person he targeted was a child from Harmony known as Fhajad-084. The person was at least 4 inches taller than him and was running through the other trainees with his team members. Suddenly John dived forward and pulled Fhajad's legs from underneath him resulting in Fhajad falling onto his face. John streaked ahead and watched the other members of Fhajad's team falling into potholes thanks to Kelly and Sam._

_John quickly sprinted up to Sam who was having trouble keeping up with Kelly._

_"How does she run that fast?", Sam queried whilst panting. John shrugged his shoulders and swung on another rope. Just as they were about to reach the bell, Sam tripped on a chained bridge and got tangled in the cold hard metal. _

_"John help me!", Sam shrieked. John rushed to him quickly and tried to pull him up, but the weight was too much for John to handle. As he looked behind Sam, a number of trainees were gathering at the other side of the bridge. _

_"Sam try to pull your arms out of the holes", John said calmly. Sam did as John told him. A number of trainees were running across the bridge swiftly, jiggling the metal and confusing Sam in the process. John assisted Sam by heaving his legs out of the holes. The trainees were almost to them when Sam finally untangled himself and sprinted with John to the bell. Kelly was on the bell tower, waiting for her team members to come._

_When John and Sam reached the bell with trainees hot their heels. They rung it together. _

_Feeling the exhaustion take over him, John collapsed on the ground._

* * *

**Hey guys,**

**I feel really bad for not updating the story, a lot of** **schoolwork is due soon and I have been busy working on it instead of updating the story, This is pt. 1 of memories. By the way, I modified the events that happened in Johns younger years.**

**Keep reading,**

**Xenongaf**


	5. Memories Part 2

The Didact continued viewing the memories, interested at the turn of events that had transpired. Eager to continue, he activated the continue function in order to keep viewing the memories.

A flash of white and then the images started to appear. He was in the same compound that he started in, although he felt changes in his body and more muscle build up.

* * *

_{Loading new memory sequences}_

_The boy Sam was on his right with his arms crossed. The young blue haired girl , Kelly, was bouncing on the balls of her feet next to Sam. Already, the natural colour of brown began growing back since their last hair cut. They were surrounded by other trainees who were busy nursing their wounds from a previous engagement with tango company. _

**_SNAP!_**

_John quickly jerked his head to the sound of the twig breaking, as well as the other trainees. It was Chief Mendez with his usual hardened look plastered onto his face._

_"Trainees, you will be sent onto a training exercise over the valley of Exodus, your objective will be given when you have arrived at the destination", he finished gruffly. _

_When the trainees were about to leave the area, a number of men armed with tranquilizers, charged in and began shooting at the Spartan children quickly but not efficiently. John watched in mild horror as he mistook the knocked out trainees to be dead. _

_With a rage he pounced onto the nearest soldier and began pounding him viciously, earning a tranquilizer to his back. His vision started swirling until he felt contact with ground and fell asleep._

_{Skip time}_

* * *

_John's eyelids slowly opened from the drowsiness. Groaning, he rolled to the side and pushed himself off the ground. Instantly he scanned the area around him. Numerous trainees were getting off the ground and rubbing their heads as if they were fuzzy in the brain. _

_Stretching his body, John looked for his two friends Sam and Kelly. But the crowdedness of the area made the trainees hard to distinguish. Frustrated with the lack of command, John almost pulled the hairs out of his head just to relieve the tension._

_"EVERYBODY LISTEN UP!", he barked at them, at trait he picked up from Chief Mendez. _

_Immediately everyone fell into silence and the only noise you could hear was the wind blowing softly through the air. He continued with his loud voice._

_"I want everyone to split up into your small groups since the day we started! Then I will direct those groups to form a squad of six with another trainee group, Understood?", he finished._

_"Affirmative 117", they yelled. It was a strange feeling for him to experience being in command of the entire group. All of them rushed through the crowds to find their group members. They were done in two minutes._

_Kelly and Sam were at his side while he paired groups into squads. John's group was paired with Fredric-104, Cal-141 and Malcolm-059. Obviously there was a contest of leadership between Fredrick and John who both wanted to lead the groups. In the end, they voted for John, although Fredric was made his Second in Command (2IC)._

_"Ok everyone, I need all the squad leaders to my location so that we can discuss what to do now that we are stranded"._

_Unfortunately some of them still had leadership issues, which meant that John had sort it out before discussing the plans. In the end, he just sent who he felt was less confident in doing this away back to their groups._

_As the Squad leaders conveyed, one of them Sheila-037 was frowning. _

_"What's wrong Sheila?", John asked. The group of them turned to her with questioning looks._

_"Well, I was wondering why we were dropped into the mountains without an objective from Chief Mendez", she explained, "however, I have a feeling that this is a form of a survival exercise". The other squad leaders just look satisfied with the information. John felt this was what it actually was._

_"I think it's time we told everyone what's happening and assign positions to different people", John told them. They nodded, then parted ways to their specific groups._

_The memory then became a blur, as he ordered people around and gathered materials. Days became hours and hours became minutes until they had reached the third day. _

_An Albatross was landed nearby their camp with a couple of guards surrounding it. _

_Kelly was pacing up and down rapidly on the balls of her feet whilst Sam had taken a seat on the dirt under a pine tree. John was making hand signals to move everyone into positions._

_"…ther rocks and thick sticks, they are a possible threat to our mission", he finished dismissing the trainees he was talking to. He turned to Kelly and nodded for her to enact the plan._

_The plan they had discussed was that Kelly would distract guards into following her into the forest whilst Alpha, Bravo and Echo squads would attack them from behind and take their weapons. The other trainees would secure the transport._

_John held out his hand, then executed the signal for everyone to go. _

_Kelly sprinted into the clearing, getting the guards attention easily and provoking them to fire some shots at her. She weaved in between them and led them away._

_As they disappeared the rest of the trainees rushed down to capture the Albatross._

_{Skip time}_

* * *

_John ran to where Kelly was who led the marines into position. He waited with the others for her familiar outline to pass the area. She rushed through the bushes and dived for the nearest bush. The marines followed her into the ambush zone, all of them puffing and exhausted._

_"Attack!", John yelled, the marines were then caught off guard and overwhelmed by the sheer number of trainees to them. Rocks were thrown and branches knocked them to the ground. Bruises and scratches began appearing on their bodies, mostly the heads._

_John then motioned for the ambush group to follow him back to the Albatross. It was already up and running, with Stu-013 as the pilot. John checked that all the trainees had arrived and found that all had safely made it in. Walking into the cockpit, he gave Stu the thumbs up for him to take off. Within minutes they were in the air, closing in on the training camp._

_{End of major memory sequence}_

* * *

_{Next major memory sequence}_

_Pain…all he could think of was searing sensation that plagued his bones. The doctor said the anaesthetic would make the pain go away. He didn't question the doctor, but now he was sure it was just to reassure the fears of some of the Spartans. _

_Already he had seen some of the outcomes of the augmentations. Almost half of the trainees that had already started their augmentations were either dead or deformed in some way. The pilot Spartan Stu had broken leg bones due to the sheer density of his muscles and Fhajad had a twitch nervous system._

_He could hear yelling from around him but he could only see the ceiling of the sterile white room. Suddenly robotic arms with needles attached to them plunged the sharp tips into his blood vessels. _

_An agonised cry erupted from his mouth before the crushing feeling of muscles growing had taken place. Within minutes it was all over. The scientists and doctors nearby brought a mobile stretcher and lifted him onto it. He was too tired to stay conscious and fell asleep._

_{End of major memory sequence}_

* * *

_{Next memory sequence}_

_John had finished his workout and was about to leave when a group of four tall muscled men stood in his path. The leader by the looks of it stepped forward and sneered at him._

_"Looks like a newbie forgot one of the rules on the ship", he said smirking mirthlessly. He then motioned for his lackeys to surround John._

_John took a fighting stance with his fists up and bouncing on the balls of his feet._

_"Oh so the newbie wants to take us on", the leader gave a wicked smile before charging forward which motioned for the others to join him. _

_John dived between the leaders legs and pulled them from underneath him, resulting in him face planting into the floor, knocking a tooth from his mouth. _

_The leader then took an enraged facial expression before getting on his feet._

_But before he could even move, a Sergeant Grade 3 stepped into the room to witness the scene. With a raised eyebrow he walked in front of the leader._

_"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!", he barked the question. The leader flinched involuntarily, the rest slowly backed away from John. _

_"Sir, I can expla…", the leader began, but the Sergeant interrupted him._

_"I DON'T CARE IF YOU BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF THIS NEWBIE, BUT YOU DO THAT IN THE BOXING ARENA, AM I CLEAR!", He yelled clearly irritated that the leader was being impractical. _

_The leader smirked obviously pleased with the answer._

_"Could you invite him into the arena Sergeant", he asked._

_The sergeant could see the burning desire to beat up the little scrimp inside the man's eyes._

_"Yes you have permission", he said whilst peering at John. John shrugged before walking to the arena, the four men following him. _

_As soon as they entered, the four of the men attempted to pounce on the augmented teenager. John ducked under their attempt and threw a punch at the rib cage of one of the men resulting in the ribs collapsing and accidently jamming it into the lungs. He screamed which startled the others and John took the opportunity to throw uppercuts at the others jaws. They all stumbled backwards dazed from the punches before John swiftly knocked their heads, resulting in the cracking of skulls and they became unconscious._

_The Sergeant was horrified at the young Spartans actions but before he could do anything, Chief Mendez walked through the doors in the same manner as the sergeant did. _

_"That was very impressive for John-117", he commented. The Sergeant then widened his eyes in realization and raced out the doors. Chief Mendez stepped aside to allow the ships medical team to extract the near dead ODST's._

_{End of major memory sequence}_

* * *

_{Next memory sequence}_

_The walk through Corbulo Academy was disturbing to say the least. Bodies were strewn about. All had the same dead shocked expressions. Jackal and grunt patrols walked around to make sure their wasn't any survivors. John walked through the building when his motion tracker detected a red dot._

_Slowly walking through what looked like a weapons locker, he saw an elite posed with its energy sword ready to kill something. Taking a knife from his belt, he swiftly stabbed it in the neck, killing it instantly and reveal four wide eyed cadets huddled down._

_"Do you know how to fight?", he questioned them, they nodded simultaneously. "Why don't you have a weapon on you?", the coarse voice intimidated them._

_"Well we can't seem to unlock the lockers because…", the cadet said nothing further as John punched a hole in the locker and ripped the door off it's hinges revealing weapons and armour._

_They were speechless and looked at him. He responded with a jerk of his head to the opened locker. They scrambled to get the armour on and checked their assault rifles._

_{Skip Time}_

* * *

_John-117 watched as one of the cadets knelt down trying desperately to help a female cadet who was wounded with a needler. The situation reminded him of how they had to leave Sam behind, due to the rupture in his suit, to destroy the covenant ship, sacrificing himself so that humanity could have a chance._

_"We have to leave cadet Lasky, the hunters will be coming soon", he urged the young cadet. The female took one last breath before closing her eyes to an endless sleep. Lasky stood up slowly with tears in his eyes and grasped the cadets dogtags in his hands. _

_He slowly walked away and began following the group._

_Minutes later, they ran into hunters. John-117 engaged them whilst Lasky distracted them allowing John to plant a grenade in the thick of the worms killing the beast. John picked up a piece of the armour before leaving and showing the extraction zone to the cadets. The familiar armour of Kelly showed up with a pelican in the background. When they boarded the ship, they sat in silence before John looked at Lasky intently. He reached into his armour pouch and pulled out the hunter armour piece. He then dropped it into Lasky's waiting hands. _

_"You did well Lasky", his gravelly voice rumbled. The cadet looked at the piece with great awe and pocketed it into a breast pocket._

_{End of major memory sequence}_

* * *

_{Beginning of major memory sequence}_

_John sprinted away from the heavily armed Skyhawk jumpjet that gave chase. The 50mm cannons on the aircraft sputtered to life, hitting the ground around John-117 and making him run faster._

_The sound of a fwoosh caused him to look over his shoulder. A missile from the Skyhawk was launched at him. It almost reached John when he suddenly turned around to slap the projectile away. It flew straight into the Skyhawk's left VTOL engine resulting in the erratic spinning of the aircraft. The craft crashed down on the surface in an explosion of fire._

_"Now that was impressive", a female voiced. _

_"Thank you Cortana", John replied._

_He stared at the burning wreckage before turning to walk away._

_"Always with the bells isn't it?", he muttered._

_{End of major memory sequence}_

* * *

_{Beginning of major memory sequence}_

_On the Pillar of Autumn the hissing sound of a cryo pod opening filled the cryo bay. John climbed groggily out of the pod stumbling a bit before standing up straight. A technician walked up to him clearly worried about something._

_"Alright I'm going to need you to…", he stopped when the dreaded sound of a plasma weapon filled the air. The observation tower became overrun with aliens killing all the technicians._

_The Elites then looked through the observation window, which was now cracked, and pointed eagerly at John. The technician tapped at John's shoulders and motioned for him to follow him. John had no other choice than to follow the poorly armed man. _

_(Skip time)_

* * *

_The bridge was packed with people. Technician's, gunners, marines and even officers occupied the moderately sized room. A single person stood out to John, the captain rank symbol imprinted on the uniform. He turned with his hands folded behind his back seemingly contemplating on something._

_"Master Chief, it's good to see you up and operational", Captain Keyes began with a stern smile. John saluted before shaking hands with the captain. _

_"Chief, I am intrusting you with this AI that I'm sure you are familiar with", he continued. A holographic appeared on the holotank next to the ships displays. _

_"Missed me Chief", she said playfully. John just gave a nod before focusing his attention on the captain in front of him. _

_"Spartan, I am intrusting with Cortana, the capture of a UNSC shipboard AI, much less a smart AI is unacceptable. I need you to take her and some other marines to the surface of this ring". John nodded vigorously._

_"While you do what? Go down with the ship?", she questioned sarcastically. _

_"In a matter of speaking", he replied. He then moved over to the holotank and tapped away on the interface before pulling a small chip from a slot on the side of it. Holding it up in two fingers, he held it out for John to grab in which he did. John then inserted it into his helmet._

_"Hmmm, your brain's inside is not much different than the ships architecture", she commented._

_"Don't get any funny ideas", he said with a stern voice before looking back at the captain._

_"Good luck Spartan", Captain Keyes said before saluting John in which he returned it before exiting the bridge with determination._

_(End of major memory sequence)_

* * *

_(Beginning major memory sequence)  
The swamp overgrowth combined with the dark sky unsettled John and Cortana wasn't here to direct him. A couple of dead covenant on the way made him grow suspicious of his surrounds._

_ The rustling of leaves caused him to whip his body to face that direction. The silhouette of a creature leaping through the air gauged John's curiosity._

_Fortunately before he could investigate, an entrance to a forerunner building was in front of him open wide. The urgency of the situation reminded him to move quicker in their objective in finding Captain Keyes. _

_After a few minutes of exploring, going down an elevator and opening doors, John discovered the body of a dead marine whilst opening a door to the next room. Laying him down flat, a quick examination showed that he was killed not by plasma weapons but by bullets and strange claw marks. _

_John then noticed a camera mounted on the helmet. A small card stuck out from the rest of the camera which presumably held the footage. Taking the card out, he inserted it into a secondary port near the back of the helmet._

_(Skip time)_

* * *

_Slime, flesh and other unspeakable things covered John's body as he ran out of the facility. The scream's of the monsters filled the air and the horrifying organic puppets ran out of the building hot on his tail. _

_The swamp was still the same dark setting and he sprinted blindly through it. The sudden rustling in the bushes once again brought John's weapon pointing at the spot. Surprisingly, out of the bushes came a marine fire team led by a black sergeant._

_"Master Chief, am I glad to see you here", He said gruffly. John just nodded briefly before motioning the sergeant to follow him._

_"This is Foe Hammer to Master Chief, extraction is about klick away", she said over his radio._

_"Copy that", he replied. A waypoint appeared on his HUD and the pelican could be seen hovering above the ground. Suddenly he was whisked away from the marines to an unknown location._

_(End of major memory sequence)_

* * *

_(Beginning of major memory sequence)_

_The sight of a biomass covered Jacob Keyes shocked John and Cortana, the decorated Captain had been assimilated into a flood mass, the only recognisable feature was his face, which had a desperate expression plastered on._

_"Chief you know what we have to do", she said in his helmet._

_With a great sigh, he plunged his fist into the head of Jacob Keyes fishing around for something before pulling out the Neural Key. Holding it to his helmet, he slotted into a spare port to hold it. _

_Taking one last look at the deceased Captain, he walked away going further into the ship._

_(End of major memory sequence)_

* * *

_(Start of major memory sequence)_

_John was gunning the engines of the warthog through the maze of the ship. Flood life forms, Sentinels and even Covenant troops fought amongst each other for control of the exploding ship._

_He weaved left and right of pillars, enemies and other warthogs to reach the last Longsword. The timer kept ticking and the engine to the warthog was smoking and flickers of flames started to dance on the bonnet. _

_They turned left and were greeted with the sight of a massive hanger, with the Longsword sitting on the platform. By now the warthog was about to blow and John jump out it just in time as it exploded into shrapnel that pierced flood combat forms tailing John._

_Sprinting, he pushed himself to his limits as the timer had reached 2 minutes. Hauling himself up the entrance, he activated the ramp closing function to get ready to go to space._

_John burst into the cockpit and hurriedly inserted Cortana into the fighters computer whilst tapping other buttons to start up the engine. The Longswords engines roared to life, manning the controls, John steered the fighter out of the hanger and into the sky, then into space at full speed. The ship shook and vibrated violently and the force of the explosion pushed them away from the ring. _

_John powered down the engine.  
"Halo, the Flood, it's all over now Cortana said hopefully._

_"No", he replied, putting his hands to the helmet on his head, "I think we're just getting started", he twisted the seal and the helmet came off with a hiss._

* * *

**Hey Guys,**

**I redid this chapter since a couple of people commented it on being short, so I put all my time into it and came up with this, it's still short but it focuses mainly on a few events. ****I also realised the previous ending was bad, so there will be most likely a memories part 3.**

**All in all I hoped you enjoyed this chapter,**

**Xenongaf,**


	6. Memories Part 3

_"__Son do you know how expensive this equipment is", the technician questioned the green armoured giant. Chief slid his helmet back on his head, with a hiss, the vacuum sealants attached themselves to the base of his helmet._

_"__Tell that to the covenant", he said with finality. _

_"__Hey gunny, is my boy ready?", a familiar black man walked in, " I don't see no training wheels". _

_"__Chief you're free to go". Chief nodded and walked over to the elevator with Johnson following close behind. _

_"__Hey Sergeant, when are you gonna tell me about the mission?", the technician asked curiously. _

_"__Sorry Gunny, that's classified", he replied. The elevator began moving up. _

_"__Well you can forget about your upgrades to the…", the elevator cut the technician off._

_The elevator trip was uneventful, and Chief just stood still until they got to the top. Instantly camera drones swarmed both John and the Spartan._

_"__You told me there wouldn't be any camera's", Chief expressed displeasingly. He clenched his fist restraining himself from smashing a drone._

_"__And you told me you were going to wear something nice!", John admonished humorously, "Folks need heroes Chief, to give 'em hope. So smile would'ja! While we still got something to smile about!". He flashed a cheeky grin at Chief before looking at the crowd and drones._

_[Major memory sequence]_

_Boom!_

_The scorpion tank rumbled down the bridge of New Mombasa, machine gun firing continuously whilst the main cannon reloaded._

_Boom!_

_Another banshee exploded in mid air, throwing debris everywhere. The tank drove victoriously to the other side, gunning down covenant troops left and right. The Spartan focused on the wraiths attempting to take a shot at him. Pressing the button, the first wraith went up in a ball of plasma and fire, whilst the second one fired off it's shot. Chief leaped out of the cockpit just in time to hear the sound of an exploded tank. _

_He quickly sprinted to the wraith, snatching a grenade from his belt and priming it. Leaping on the cobalt tank, he smashed a hole in the cockpit and stuck the explosive there before performing a backflip off the armour plating. The wraith exploded moments later in a similar fashion to it's companion tank._

_Chief walked away from the explosion ready to taking on some more covenant._

_The inner part of New Mombasa was wrecked, the tremors of a scarab crawling was heard throughout the city. Chief followed the colossal war machine around the city, taking a warthog and flights of stairs in order to catch up to it. He finally made his way to some ledges where the scarab was directly below. _

_Chief jumped and landed on the armoured platform roughly, though he was able to stay standing. The surrounding hostiles engaged him almost immediately attempting to catch him off guard. _

_However, they made a poor choice in attacking. Within minutes, the scarab was empty save the Chief. He tapped on a nearby hologram and activated the self destruction feature. The machine shook and shuddered as he calmly strolled out of the cockpit walking to the front edge. Jumping off the scarab, he watched as it shuddered and finally exploded into a ball of blue plasma._

_[Major memory sequence]_

_The ancient structure was in chaos. Chief shot through the elite honour guards. _

_"__Stop the demon, it must not disrupt the ceremony!", a frail looking alien screeched. The other aliens charged at him, all reason disappeared as they fought the Spartan relentlessly but sloppily. _

_Soon the prophet was the only alien alive at this point, on his knees held by his throat. "Demon, a thousand hells await you in the afterlife", the prophet said defiantly, "the Gods have judged you and your pitiful race unworthy of the…"_

_Chief tightened his grip on the prophets throat. "I charge you with committing a genocide of humanity, you have been found guilty and wanted, your punishment is this", Chief held up an energy sword before plunging it into the prophets back in a fashion that similar to elites stabbing their victims. The alien, screamed in pain before slumping down. _

_"__Chief you better get outside", Cortana urged, "something's happening to the space above us. He did as he was told and stopped dead still when he witnessed what was above him. A massive fleet, bigger than any he had seen circling what looked to be a gigantic purple space station. A ship broke off the fleet and headed towards him. It was a super carrier and by the looks of it's underbelly, it was going to glass him._

_Chief broke into a mad dash using every muscle and fibre to push himself to the limits, he reached the edge of the temple when the glassing beam struck, sending him over the edge and into the water unconscious._

_[Major memory sequence]_

_His head was throbbing, and he felt as if there was a ridiculously large rope wrapped around him tightly. He opened his eyes to view a large tentacle looking object wrapped around his torso, it was green, peeling and what looked to be a shocked face inside of it._

_Chief felt disgusted, the need wretch up his stomach was great, but the logic in his mind fought back, especially when he saw the face of the creature._

_A gigantic looking plant that with riddled with dead skin, fungus and bumps, made it look grotesque. The head was split into three triangle shaped appendages that resembled a maw. _

_A few minutes later of observation, another tentacle dropped from the ceiling carrying what looked like an Elite in ancient silver armour. He was struggling, desperate to wretch himself out of the tentacles decaying grasp even though it was futile._

_"__Relax, I'd rather not piss this thing off", Chief gave the Elite some advice, in which he retorted, "Demon"._

_"__This one is machine and nerve, and had its mind concluded", he directed at Chief. "This one is but flesh and faith and is the more deluded", It said to the Elite._

_"__Kill me or release me parasite! But do not waste my time with talk", the Elite yelled. The creature of rotten flesh growled at the comment._

_"__There is much talk, and I have listened, through rock metal and time!", it raised it's voice, "Now I shall talk and you shall listen"._

_The creature produced two tentacles, each holding something in them. One was a monitor and the other was a prophet impaled on one of the tentacles._

_"__Greetings I am 2401 Penitent Tangent Monitor of installation 05", the machine introduced itself quite cheerfully, despite the fact it was surrounded by flood._

_"__And I am the Prophet of Regret, counsellor of the most high… hierarch of the Covenant", the alien forced it's words out his mouth. The monitor turned and face Chief, almost looking ecstatic to see him. _

_"__Reclaimers? Here? At last!", it joyfully whirred, "We have much to do, this facility must be activated if we are to control this outbreak"._

_"__Stay where you are! Nothing can be done until my sermon is complete!", the prophet admonished forcefully._

_"__Not true", 2401 retorted, "this installation has a successful utilisation record of 1.2 trillion simulated and one actual. Ready to fire on demand". The prophet just shook his head at the red eyed monitor._

_"__Of all the things our lords left us, non have been so worthless"_

_"__And you know nothing about containment! You have demonstrated complete disregard for even the most basic of protocols!", the monitor aggressively retorted. _

_"__This one's containment...and this one's Great Journey are the same. Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence. But you will find no salvation on this ring", the giant beast explained, at the monitor and the prophet "Those who built this place knew what they wrought. Do not mistake their intent, or all will perish as they did before"._

_Chief nodded his head. "This thing is right. Halo is a weapon. Your Prophets are making a big mistake"._

_"__Your ignorance already destroyed one of the Sacred Rings demon. It shall not harm another", the Arbiter zealously defended his beliefs._

_The maw of the thing coughed out a cloud of green spores. "If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to keep the key from turning. But first, it must be found"._

_ "__You", he directed at Chief, "will search one likely spot'". the Gravemind then stared at the Elite, "You will search another", he continued._

_"__Fate had us met as foes, but this ring will make us brothers", and he sent Chief and the Elite away with a bright blue flash._

_[Major memory sequence]_

_Chief was falling to the earth, quite rapidly in fact. The friction produced flames licked at his green worn armour. His shields went down and the only thing that kept him cool was the metal armour plates and black body suit. The ground approached quickly and the landscape became clear. He blacked out as soon as the metal hit the ground._

_"…__bring the heavy lift, we're not leaving him here", Sergeant Johnson's voice pierced through the blackness of unconsciousness._

_Chief opened his eyes and grasped the black man's arm in a firm grip. "Yea, your not", he spoke pulling himself up._

_"__Crazy fool, why do you always jump?", he exclaims with mirth, "someday you gonna land on something as stubborn as you are, and I don't do bits and pieces". Chief pulled the AI card out of Johnson's hands and stared at it. "Where is she Chief? Where is Cortana?". _

_A brief memory of what she said came back to him; 'Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it'. "She stayed behind", he replied, sliding the chip back into his head without the feeling of cool mercury filling his head. _

_"__Corporal make it quick", Johnson ordered. _

_"__Sorry sir, your armour is still in partial lockdown", the young NCO apologised._

_Just then a shimmer outlined a moving figure, which slowly revealed the shape of an elite. Chief reacted instantly, pulling out his pistol, he sprinted up to the shape and jammed the weapon into the maw of the alien._

_"__Chief wait!", Johnson yelled, "the Arbiter is with us!". Chief didn't budge. "Come on now", the Sergeant mumbled, "we don't need you killing each other anytime soon". The Spartan finally relented and holstered the pistol. _

_"__Were it so easy", the Arbiter spoke in his baritone voice. "We must go quickly. The brutes have our scent", the elite stalked off._

_"__Then they must love the smell of badass", Johnson presented an assault rifle to Chief, who promptly snatched it away._

_[Major memory sequence] (Cue Music 'This is our land')_

_They were in the town of Voi, though mostly in the industrial section, close to the edge of a cliff made by the excavation from the loyalists ships. AA wraiths wandered the grounds looking for UNSC aircraft to shoot down._

_Chief turned his helmet to the closest one and sprinted to it. A plasma grenade was primed in his hands. Jumping on the wraiths cockpit, he punched the drivers cover and planted the blue orb on the brute pilot, whilst jumping off simultaneously. The familiar pitched whine sounded before a massive explosion went off, sending purple metal debris everywhere._

_Chief destroyed the others in a similar manner before his radio crackled to life. "Scarab, find some cover!", Johnson sound frantic._

_Seconds after the Sergeant spoke, vibrations were felt and heard by the Chief and marines. Thump, Thump, Thump… A large claw like appendage smashed into the ground, throwing up dust. Another fell, then the rest of the body was shown. It was different, than the previous one he had destroyed in New Mombasa. It was smaller and more manoeuvrable, an added top turret followed air targets and shot them down. In short it was more improved, except for the fact that it had a low body, with easy access to the behemoth. _

_Looking for something to disable the war machine, Chief spotted a missile pod on a stand. Grabbing the black handle he ripped the weapon off the stand and fired at the legs of the scarab. _

_After the missile pod was spent, Chief search for another alternative before hitting his metal boots on a rocket launcher. Checking the ammunition, he found was just two rocket primed to fire. Steadying the heavy weapon on his shoulder, he fired the two rocket in quick succession finally bringing the main body to the ground. _

_The Spartan tossed the now useless piece of metal aside and scrambled onto the purple hull with the intent of bringing it down. Without too much trouble he dispatched the war machines assorted crew; Grunts, Brutes and Jackals. Chief ventured around the machine trying to figure out a weakness. His mental query was answered when he found a circular shielded core. _

_Quickly and viciously, he pounded the surprisingly weak shielding with success and burst it. The core blinked red as a warning, but Chief paid no attention to it, instead tossing two grenades to it. The result was something akin to the Pillar of Autumn escape, except on a miniature scale compared to the formidable cruiser._

_Chief jumped off the self destructing body just as it erupted into blue searing hot light. The scarab was for a lack of better terms 'wrecked', a couple of marines cheered and jokes were exchanged between them. _

_"__Scarab you just got wrecked!", a younger marine bantered jovially. _

_"__Hey! Marines focus. We got a job to do here", a warrant officer reprimanded his soldiers. Chief just turned to the nearest way to the objective. _

_[Minutes later]_

_The explosion and the destruction of the massive covenant AA battery brought relief to the Spartan. The sound of whooshing passed over his heads and into his field of vision, revealing hundreds of Longsword fighters with half a dozen of Charon class frigates led by Lord hood._

_The resulting flashes and fiery explosion would have destroyed any other vessel. Except that the strange tripod ship was not like other vessels. _

_A sudden power surge sucked the UNSC ships until a few seconds later it exploded outwards. A dark, blue portal appeared in the sky. Chief stared at it before noticing another vessel coming just out of slip space. It was smoking and what looked like organic material, was spread all over the ship. It flew down into the town of Voi before disappearing with a earthshaking rumble._

_"__What is it. More brutes?", the Arbiter questioned. Chief just shook his head._

_"__Worse"._

**Hey guys Xenongaf here,**

**I'm so sorry you faithful readers have been waiting, but I'm back in the game (pun not intended). This year I plan to fix up the plot so that the releases will be more frequent. I currently wish to have a Beta (one that doesn't criticise harshly), if any of you are or know beta's, pls message me so I can improve the story.**

**Have a great year.**


	7. Memories Part 4

_The unexpected arrival of the flood made it hard for the Chief to link up with UNSC command. Fortunately having dealt with the flood before, he was able to kill all the flood in the way and save all the survivors. Most of them anyway… _

_As Chief continued to advance inside the corridor, he spotted a flamethrower left on the walkway. When he examined it closely, he was surprised to find it was made up of a turret body filled with spray deodorant and a lighter for ignition._

_He picked it and advanced down the hallway. Flood creatures jumped out of corners and attempted to attack him, but the makeshift flamethrower burned their flesh off. After repeating this for a while. The weapon ran out of its fuel and Chief was forced to get rid of it. _

_Chief finally made it out of the building complex with the Arbiter only to watch as enormous covenant battle cruisers dropped Elite drop pods in the middle of the flood advancements. Elite warriors leaped out of the coffin like pods and attacked the flood ferociously._

_'Hail humans and take heed' a voice projected from the radio, 'This is the carrier Shadow of Intent, clear this sector while we deal with the flood'. The radio cut._

_Chief and the Arbiter looked at each other before racing to help the outnumbered warriors. With the help of Chief and the Arbiter, the flood laid dismembered and lifeless. The group continued on like an invincible force and attacked the flood relentlessly. _

_They progressed through the buildings slaughtering all the diseased and infected people and aliens. As they approached the wreckage, phantoms dropped more Elites to help combat the flood. Chief eyed the small opening inside the wrecked ship and sprinted towards it. He jumped into the small opening, only to discover rotting corpses and a flood hive that filled the entire ship. _

_As he traversed through the abomination the flood created, the Gravemind began speaking to him in telepathy, getting into his head and speaking things he would never do. The hallways began to lead into a clearing, where a large purple console sat in the midst of the fleshy biomass with a small memory unit on top of it. A hologram of Cortana appeared, "Chief!"._

_"Cortana?", he cautiously asked. "High Charity, the prophets' holy city is on its way..", she began speaking before the hologram stutters and shuts off. Chief goes to grab the module before hearing the familiar humming of a phantom in the air, hovering above Chief._

_A silver orb with one blue eye hovers down to him, "Reclaimer!", it exclaims. A growl was heard behind Chief, but the orb acted quicker by shooting a bright laser out of it's eye at the flood form. _

_It quickly began to interact with the memory unit, using a similar looking beam from it's eye. "I must act before your construct suffers any further trauma"._

_Chief grabbed the unit with his left hand and held the orb in his right hand. "On Halo, you tried to kill Cortana. You tried to kill me", Chief said venomously._

_"Protocol dictated my response! She had the Activation Index and you were going to destroy my Installation. You did destroy my installation. Now I only have one function, to help you Reclaimer, as I always should have done"._

_Chief glanced at the module before handing it over to the floating sphere. It took it without a word and floated back into the transport with the Chief following closely. _

_[Major Memory Sequence] (Play any music to get the mood) (Recommend either Jeopardy or Peril, Halo 2/Anniversary Soundtracks)_

_The pelican streaked through the arks' Earth like atmosphere, passing the monstrous alien ships fighting each other for control over the beautiful, yet deadly surface below. A desert biome loomed in front of the flying machine, and other biomes were scattered throughout the installation. Chief viewed the landing zone from the cockpit before walking back into the blood tray and pulling a sniper rifle from the weapons racks. The rear doors smoothly opened to reveal the desert he viewed from space, rocks and boulders littered the area with sand in between the cracks and covering the vast expanse like a tan sea._

_The small squad of four he was leading trekked for a few minutes until they reached a clearing, with a sniper tower and holographic projector of the Prophet of Truth in it. The grunts slept in the grainy particles whilst the brutes lumbered around sniffing for any signs of human life. _

_Chief pulled the SRS-99 from his back and aimed through the scope on top of the rifle. He raised one hand to the marines and signalled them to prepare. Looking back through the scope, he aimed at the golden armoured brutes' head, before swiftly pulling the trigger. Choc! The loud noise of a sniper firing instantly alerted the Covenant loyalists but they were too late. _

_The ODST's assaulted relentlessly on the unprepared Covenant, covered by the Spartans superb sniping skills. By the time they were done, all the brutes, jackals and grunts laid still, with at least a hole on their body, most brutes had bullet holes through their heads. The Sniper Rifle was reattached to his back, and he strode into the cave with the squad following him confidently. _

_As they exited the cave, their eyes immediately picked up the construction of an AA-Battery, similar to the one they destroyed on Earth. A lone jackal sniper stood on the side of the partially built turret, gazing everywhere, except where the squad was. Chief aimed at the jackal instead with a battle rifle and proceeded to shoot it's brains. The small exchange went unnoticed by the other Covenant loitering underneath the structure. _

_The squad each pulled out a fragmentation grenade and tossed it to the unsuspecting aliens down below. Within seconds, the explosives scorched and killed most of the religious aliens. The squad and Chief charged out of their cover and proceeded to eliminate the rest of the ground forces. _

_A stray plasma shot hit one of the ODST's in the arm, forcing her to take cover until the skirmish was over. Chief pulled the bio-foam from one of his armour's containers and applied it to the woman. The sound of gritting teeth could be heard within the helmet, but died down after the medical tool was removed and placed back into one of the compartments in the Spartans armour. _

_Chief helped the woman up and heard the female murmur 'thanks'. They continued to proceed until they were at a pelican crash site, with survivors barely holding out. Chief spotted a broken warthog, but with it's turret looking operational. He sprinted towards the turret and powered on. The attacking forces only heard the whirring of a turret coming to life before being mowed down by the exceptional rate of fire created by the shooting machine. _

_"Hey look, it's a Spartan, we're gonna be alright", a marine cheered, looking motivated. They eliminated the rest of the Covenant there. One of the marines stood in front of Chief. "Corporal Higgins reporting", he saluted, with the gesture being returned more precisely. "How many of you are left?", Chief asked._

_"Five of us are able to fight, but two privates have been injured by the crash and are unable to fight". John racked his brain to figure out how to transport all twelve of them to the objective when the roar of a brute vehicle came from over the sand dunes. _

_Chief instantly pulled out his sniper and shot the gunner in the head when he saw the turret on top of the unique vehicle. On the sides were brute minors in the side skis and a driver was positioned at the rear of the vehicle. The rest of the squad opened fire and managed to kill both the driver and one of the brute minors. The last one went into a berserker but was swiftly shot in the head courtesy of Chief's battle rifle. The Chief wasting no time hopped into the drivers seat and the marines boarded it, one on the turret and the others sitting loosely on the skis. The engines activated, creating a semi hovering effect on the vehicle, Chief jerked the small craft forward, making it jump across a large gap, that (thankfully) the small craft made across. _

_Unfortunately, the area was occupied by another prowler and two choppers. The choppers fired with their primitive cannons, missing the stolen prowler by metres. Chief used the prowlers fast speed to splatter the unprotected brutes on the choppers. The brutes on the other prowler were easily killed due to their unprotected bodies and the plasma cannon used more efficiently in human hands._

_"Oooraaaahhh", the marines yelled whilst the ODST's were unimpressed. Chief glanced at the other prowler before motioning for the marines to take that prowler as well. The relief in their faces were present. _

_The current UNSC force now included two fully occupied prowlers that were wrecking the covenant anti-air vehicles. The plasma turrets were useful in melting the main armour of the AA-Wraiths, although two of the marines that travelled with them died from kig-yar snipers._

_"Chief, I'm setting down the Dawn near your position, get ready"_

_The marines looked at each other confused, "Is the dawn rated for atmosphere?". Their question was answered when the 500 metre frigate swooped down with a rush of air. Dust flew up in the air and objects started flying due to the massive influx of air._

_The rear of the frigate began to slowly lower platforms with Scorpion Tanks and a single gauss warthog being the cargo. As soon as the platforms touched the ground, the vehicles rolled off and began heading in the direction of the large forerunner structure spotted on the way there. _

_[Skip time] _

_After wrecking the scarab on the way to the cartographer, the accompanying marines, ODST's, MCPO-117 and 343 Guilty Sparks, infiltrated the metallic structure. They encountered grunts, jackals and a pack of brutes that sorely needed help in the art of sneaking. All the above were eliminated by the UNSC team. As they reached the top of the tower the monitor Guilty Sparks began to interact with the forerunner controls. _

_"Do you think we can actually win this?", asked an ODST. John faced the ODST, who happened to be the same one that he treated earlier. _

_"Not entirely sure, but there is a chance we can win this war for good", He replied. The female unpolarised her visor and smiled at him. His breath caught in his throat. _

_That face reminded him of someone so dear to him, the blond hair, the bright blue eyes and the clear Caucasian skin and those lips, Parisa… Chief cleared his mind and focused on the main objective ahead._

_[Major Memory Sequence]_

_The view of the ring from the interior of the pelicans cockpit, brought back nostalgic and unforgettable memories as well as old grudges, specifically at the installations monitor. _

_His grip on the pelicans steering tightened, but not to the point where the metal bent. The Arbiter stood calmly beside John, gazing at the beautiful structure checking his energy sword every so often. _

_Suddenly alarms blared and a monitor on the pelican displayed the problem. It was the left wings engine that was malfunctioning. The surface of the ring grew larger and larger, the trio however were unconcerned about it. _

_The control room became visible, but the pelican couldn't land on the main area since it became uncontrollable. The transport glided through the tall, snowy cliffs before crashing into a mound of snow and lodging itself at the bottom._

_The rear hatch burst open and out emerged John and the Arbiter. The pair glanced at each before taking out their weapons and headed to the control room._

_[Skip time]_

_The control room was silent. Only the echoing of the two warriors footsteps could be heard within the chamber. 343 Guilty sparks floated down to them, the distinct whirring of the monitors propulsion systems alerted them to his presence._

_Johnson strode out to the control panel, his trademark cap was missing from his head. But a red laser, similar to a Spartan Laser struck him in his back. John sprinted to Johnson but was stopped by another red laser striking him in the chest._

_"You are the child of my makers, Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring…is mine."_

_The sinister tone heard in the monitors voice snapped John out of his stupor and he starts shooting at the monitor with the assault rifle in his hands._

_The result is in vain, however as Guilty Sparks remained undamaged. "I have kept it safe. It belongs to me!", "Not for long light bulb", a weak yet determined voice spoke and a red laser struck the orb on his 'eye'. The monitor flew away from the battle temporarily._

_John rushed to the downed Sergeants side, wanting to be there for his fallen friend. "Chief take this, kick…his…ass", Johnson then fell to unconsciousness. The Spartan took the laser weapon and shouldered it just before the forerunner AI appeared again, red with rage. _

_The battle between the augmented human and the advanced robot was ferocious, but the silver robot could only take a couple of hits before his power core overloaded and exploded in a bright blue flare._

_John dropped the Spartan Laser and ran back to Johnson, not knowing what he can do to ease the black man's pain. "Don't…Don't ever let her go Chief" he rasped, "send me out with a bang", he smirked before closing his eyes and resting in peace._

_He trembled slightly before getting up and looked away from the now dead sergeant. He walked over to the controls and numbly held Cortana's chip to the holographic display. Her avatar flickered as she jumped between the different systems. She jumped back only seconds later and Chief put her back in his helmet._

_The door opened to reveal the Arbiter who had tried to get in to help but was prevented._

_"Spartan, my condolences for your Sergeant's death", he said solemnly. John gave him a quick nod before they proceeded outside._

_[Skip time]_

_The warthog jerked and bumped up and down on the surface of the ring. They had only minutes left before the ring would detonate and reduce everything around them to slag and gases. The vehicle roared violently as it was pushed to it's limits. Ramps and structures exploded and pieces fell from their path creating a deadly pathway._

_Suddenly, a dark silhouette of a UNSC frigate was seen kilometres away, hovering over a chasm that was flowing with lava and other liquids. John steered to the frigate, hoping that he would have enough inertia to carry the warthog into the lower cargo bay. Just as they were three-quarters there, a explosion rocked the ground making it hard to keep the vehicle steady. John managed to make it straight and gunned the engine for the final jump._

_Time seemed to slow down for the two warriors as the car leaped across the gap, giving them a glimpse of the destruction going on below them. Time sped up again, and they crashed into the hangar bay. Chief immediately got up and plugged Cortana into the ships systems whilst the Arbiter disappeared into the ship. _

_An unsecured scorpion tank flipped towards John and knocked him back. "Chief!", Cortana yelped in surprise, but the Chief smashed his fist into the floor and hung there before pulling himself up to the pedestal in the middle of the room. _

_A groaning noise filled the area before they heard a noticeable tear and something smashing. The blue slipspace field behind them disappeared and showed normal space. Chief pulled the AI from the pedestal and explored the damage. _

_It was frightening to see how close he was to dying from the ship tearing itself into two pieces. The once connected hallways were now exposed to the harsh temperatures of space. John knew they were stranded. "What happened?", _

_"I'm not sure, when Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. Did a number on the Ark. The Portal couldn't sustain itself. We made throught just as it collapsed", Cortana explained. John drifted down the hallway to the cryo bay. _

_"You did it, Truth, the Covenant, the Flood", she said amazed, "It's finished"_

_"Yes, it's finished", he whispered. He climbed into the pod at the end of the room._

_"I'll drop a beacon. But it'll be a while before anyone finds us". She turned to the Spartan, "I'll miss you"._

_"Wake me, when you need me", he spoke before shutting himself in the casket. The cryo functions activated and his vision began to grow dark._

_[End of Memory Sequence]_

The Didact woke up feeling different, his mind was clear of some of the mad thoughts that ran through his mind. The human's life he had explored was somewhat memorable and life changing. Hating humanity was a mistake and cost his race dearly.

But he realised as Shadow of Sundered Stars, that the Mantle of Responsiblity needed to be upheld. He couldn't be the sole guardian of the Mantle, he needed others that could be in his steed and take care of other problems.

But first he needed to wake up John and apologise for this brutal treatment.\

**Hey to all my readers,**

**It was really tough trying to write that chapter and had almost no inspiration, so I took break. For those who read my other story, the next chapter won't come out until it has been finished, I haven't even started writing it. Hope you enjoy this chapter,**

**Xenongaf,**


	8. Postponing Notice

Hey guys; I know you will hate me, but I am putting this story on hold. NOT ADOPTION!

I need most of my time focused on studying and concentrating for school assessments and test that are coming up. I will revise this story and re-publish chapters in a better form with fixed up errors. I really didn't plan far ahead for me to continue this story but I will be continuing new beginnings, my other one.

I apologise for this sad news but I will come back to this and pick up the pieces.

Yours Sincerely,

Xenongaf


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